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Sunday, September 18, 2011

Banking on Potential

"And they blessed Rebekah and said unto her,"Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them." Genesis 24:60

On a day like today, I read a statement like that and- if I didn't know better- I'd think Rebekah's family were actually cursing her. Thousands of millions? Really? How mean ARE they? Forget the pain of childbirth- let's just talk about the aftermath: childHOOD.

I can't help thinking this as I'm listening to the regular soundtrack here at Boystown: crying, fighting, shouting, whining, and something that sounds slightly like grunting. I'm having a hard enough time today with just 3- if someone in my family "blessed" me with "thousands of millions", well, that might cause me to disown them. At the very least, they'd stop receiving a Christmas card from us.

Then again, our "little" family probably wouldn't fit on a Christmas card at that point, so...

The logical side of my brain, though, tells me that #1- they weren't cursing Rebekah and #2- they didn't mean for her to literally give birth to all those kids.

Children- despite their tendency to make you want to scream and hide- ARE a blessing from God. They have a whole lifetime of potential and -if we do OUR jobs right- that potential could lead to anything from great jobs (to support us in the lifestyle we'd like to become accustomed to, of course) to helping "thousands of millions" come to know Christ.

Right now, as I'm writing this, I can't help but wonder to myself if Rebekah ever thought back on that day when they blessed her and mumbled a silent curse under her breath for the well-wishers. The thought, honestly, makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. It makes me smile that maybe she, too, pulled her hair out in frustration at her boys' antics. Could HER neighbors hear HER getting on her sons' cases?

But I think that what makes me smile and gives me hope the most is that potential our kids have. If I can somehow survive their childhood and "bring them up in the way they should go", who knows what could happen? I mean, one of Rebekah's sons -Jacob- was the father of Christ's bloodline. If that kind of potential doesn't give a mom hope that her kids will turn out ok, I don't know WHAT will.

3 comments:

Your post made me smile, I'm sure Rebekah did pull at her hair some, probably gained some more gray as well, after all she was human! I only have one, he can be a handful but I love him so so so much! I can't wait to see him grow and develop!

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About Me

I'm a SortaSuperMom that gets her extraordinary powers from coffee. I've been with the love of my life, Corey, since high school. We have 3 boys because we're a little bit crazy and because God OBVIOUSLY thought it would be funny to do that to a total girlie girl. I cook and bake to save my sanity, and when that doesn't work, I write about it. Anything else you'd like to know, you can read about it here.